Lillard or Davis?

So now that Lillard is a unanimous winner of the Rookie of the Year award, i pose this question. Who would you rather pick to build your team around? Lillard or Anthony Davis?

Lillard is a beast, but he also benefited from a record amount of minutes and the keys to the franchise. Davis dealt with a few injuries but when healthy, he was more than effective. I know its harder to find big guys with the skills he has, but could he be injury prone? And will he add the muscle and strength to play against guys like Gasol and Duncan?

In most cases, it's easier to find point guards through the draft then it is to find big men as skilled as Davis. Point guard is easily the strongest position in the NBA nowadays, and there are usually a handful of good prospects from both High-major teams and mid major teams, whereas most bigmen that come out of the draft are A) Skilled but not very strong, or filled out, or B) Very athletic and raw. Id rather take a reasonably complete big in AD then a point that will come along a lot more often in Lillard

I remember so many people ripping OKC for not drafting Tyreke Evans over James Harden after just one year. I don't think any of those opinions exist anymore but again its too early. Lillard could have a career like Billups (getting better with age) or could have a career like Kenny Anderson (peaking early). Davis could be the next KG or the next Jonathan Bender (if the injuries keep up). Let's see what happens.

Bender's best season was his 3rd year in Indy when he averaged 7 points and 3 boards. I will go out on a limb and say Anthony Davis already had a better career in one year than Bender had in 5+ years in the league. Davis missed games for a concussion which was a freak injury. He also had an MCL sprain as well as a shoulder injury. It may be a bit concerning but none of those injuries appear that they will effect Davis long term. To compare him to Bender is a little out there.

The reason Davis is still the player with more potential is because his defensive skill set. He will get stronger and is already a top 10 shot blocker in the league. Lillard will score more points than Davis but I still think Davis can effect the game more with defense and rebounding.

Davis is uncommonly good for a big man at a very young age. Lillard looks well on his way to becoming a top 10 pg, but Davis could be a very special. I'm not sure a big man his age has ever had as the kind of NBA success before turning 20 that Davis had. Big men very seldom are super productive as rookies and those who have been as successful as Davis are always more experienced and usually become elite players. Davis is already better than Garnett was at the same age and could easily become a 20-10 player at the same age Duncan did. Davis's PER as a rookie is the 18th best ever for a player appearing in 60+ games and playing 28+ minutes per game. And those ahead of him are almost all elite players.

There is no guarantee that Davis becomes the franchise big man, but he is already a very nice NBA big man and it is much harder to find great big man in the NBA. There are at least 15 pgs in the NBA who somebody would argue is elite. Lillard is a really nice player and I would not be shocked if he became a top 5 PG at some point in his career, but there are a lot of really good starting PGs in the league, as the posters above have mentioned.

Davis and it's not even close. Few big men have had the rookie season he had, and he was much more efficient than Lilllard who is also significantly older than Davis as well. I'm pretty sure if you asked 30 GM's who they would choose, 30 would say Davis. Add to that Davis averaged around 10 minutes less than Lillard this past year. Lillard while a good player has inflated and not super-efficient numbers.

Am I really missing that much with Davis? Yes he was efficient, but it's not too hard to be efficient when all of your shots come from 0 feet away from the basket. He still is a LONGGGG way from having any skill set offensively. He can't shoot, and he doesn't really make anyone else better. Yes, he's a versatile defender, but he isn't big enough to dominate the paint like a Marc Gasol. And he was injured ALL THE TIME. I don't know, he has more potential than Lillard, but he was really average this year.

Since when was 14 points and 8 boards a game average? Sure, he was injured for a good 20 games, but he still managed to be efficient when he was on the floor. And his jumper is borderline good, certainly at least average, especially for a 20 yr old center. He shot 45% between 10-18 feet this season, which is better then Lamarcus Aldridge's 43%, and Aldridge is considered a great mid range shooter, so I think Davis has proven that he is well on his way to being at minimum a top 5 big in the league, barring continued injury problems ala Andrew Bynum/Greg Oden. He is only 19/20 remember, so its not like he is even a grown man yet, so you cant expect him to have the body of Marc Gasol, who on a side note, is a completely different player, so comparing there body shapes is silly, as Davis is more of an athletic shot blocker, with glimpses of Chris Bosh in his offensive game, whereas Gasol is a big bodied space eater inside, using his large frame to carve up space and work out of the low block. Davis is well on his way to stardom, though time will tell what his development and future holds.

I really don't care if you guys neg me, Davis is the furthest thing from complete. That has nothing to do with his potential, it has to do with the right now. As those stats support, he absolutely terrible offensively from anywhere that isn't around the hoop. To be complete, you have to have more to your offensive game than put backs and dunks. To be complete, you have to actually do more than block shots defensively. Right now Davis has a long way to go to be "complete" which is the only point I was making.

First off I would pick Anthony Davis. Lillard has had an absolute monster season just stuffing the stat sheet but I think Lillard is very close to reaching his full potential whereas as Davis has only scratched the surface. And I agree with the fact that it is much more difficult to find such skilled big men but even that's slowly changing with the influx of European big men entering the league these days eg vucevic, valanciunas

The fact that he is efficient is not due to his skillset which is a good thing to an optimist. If he does not have an established skillset and he still found a way to score 13.5 ppg off of putbacks, alleyoops, easy dunks and layups off of screens, pick and rolls, and fastbreak leakouts as a 19 year old playing less than 30 mpg imagine how good he will be when he is Lillards age with more weight and an established skillset. Not to mention he averaged 8 rpg, 1 spg, and 2 bog. Davis is extremely fluid and athletic and has shown touch and should be able to develop a jumper and offensive game similar to Chris Bosh
..with more grit.

Long term Im taking Anthony Davis barring injuries this guy could really be special. Lillard came in more NBA ready and proved it this year but point guard is a much easier position to fill than trying to find starting quality big in the draft let alone one to build around. Every year there is at least one pretty good guard in the draft you can't same the same for bigs they usually need more time to develop in the league.

This is an absurd question. Damian Lillard is 23 years old. Anthony David is 20 years old. Do you know where Damian Lillard was at 20 years old? Losing the Big Sky Championship to Montana. Losing in the first round of the NIT. Anthony Davis is 20 in the league.

I'm not even talking basketball at all (maybe Lillard is another Reke or maybe he is D. Rose. I am not making that argument.)

Age ends the discussion. I don't even know why this discussion is had. As the earlier post said 30 out of 30 GM's would take Davis. Hell, Portland would jump in a heartbeat to take a 20 year old kid like Davis.

I mean I don't really want to be loud about it, but I don't see how a rational person could make a good argument, any argument, at all for Lillard. I mean Lillard is two years older than Kyrie Irving(!) Kyrie has been in the league for two years already!

Davis has a long way to go though, I'm not sure if he can put on that much weight given his body type. He has the ability one day to become a KG type of player. However, KG is great because he has the mind and attitude to go along with the ability/body. Is Davis a sure thing down the line ? Lillard I'll know what I'm going to get from him because he had time to mature and work on all his skills. On a up and coming team I would take Lillard, and a completely rebuilding team Davis. I know its harder to find a good big man, but its just as good or better to find a franchise pg.

I'm not a huge Davis guy but he has to be the answer. Despite huge overreactions by some people (going both ways) he had a solid year and should turn into a really good 2 way player. Plus Lillard is playing the most stacked position in the NBA right now and I don't see him jumping the top tier guys.